Piers Morgan, Gordon Brown and the mile high club: political discourse reaches a new low

"What is the definition of countryside?", Stephen Fry was asked a few years ago on I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue. His Wildean answer,"the murder of Piers of Morgan," was soon framed on the wall of the then Mirror editor's downstairs loo.

This probably tells you a couple of things. Firstly, that I've read Piers Morgan's book, The Insider. Guilty as charged. But it's also an example of Morgan's love of the limelight, regardless of the context and tactics which land him in it (as it were).

Here's another case in point, from the transcript of the Piers Morgan Life Stories interview with the Prime Minister, which is printed in today's Telegraph. In response to Gordon Brown's when-I-met-Sarah-on-a-plane story, Piers Morgan asks the following question: "You didn't join the mile high club, did you?"

Brown's response – a firm "No" – put an end to that line of questioning. But you have to ask, what does this say about the standard of political discourse in Britain? Can you imagine an American interviewer trying that on Barack Obama? Or a Russian journalist teasing Vladimir Putin in the same way? How dispiriting that celebrity culture has imposed itself on our democracy.

We know that Alastair Campbell helped to prepare Brown for this interview. "I've been involved a little bit more than I was in helping Gordon with PMQ's and there was some discussion about this interview", he told Andrew Marr last Sunday. Was this question part of the bargain? ("Alright, I'll go easy on him Al, as long as I can throw in something about his sex life – it's time we spiced Gordon up a bit for the ladies.")

Both Labour and the Tories are focused with laser-like intensity on winning the female floating voter. As I noted yesterday, there is even a spin war developing on MumsNet over the intricacies of child tax credits.

Morgan's interview with Brown, however, is surely a new low even for the most calculating politician. Why, might you ask, would ITV broadcast it this Sunday at 10.15 pm? Well, perhaps those floating female voters (most of them surely single) will be feeling especially vulnerable. They'll be crying out for a strong, sensitive man. And guess who'll show up, wearing a rosy pink Valentine's day tie?